CBD For Sleep: Can It Help?

Sleep. It is one of the most important parts of daily life and maintaining overall health, but it is desperately hard to come by for many of us. 

Nothing is worse than lying awake and staring at your ceiling in the middle of the night, knowing you will have to get up for work in only a couple of hours. Even your go-to solution (melatonin, say) has not been working like it used to. You do not know what you are supposed to do, but you do know that you cannot keep living like this.

CBD oil has been gaining attention for the role it may be able to play in aiding sleep. After all, CBD helps you feel relaxed and supports your overall mental health, and a person with a relaxed mind and body tends to have an easier time falling asleep and staying asleep. Early studies are promising (and we recommend you do some of your own research since we cannot link to any studies), so it may be worth exploring and seeing if it helps you in your daily life. 

This article will go over everything you need to know about CBD oil and sleep that we are allowed to speak about. It will also explain some of the other ways CBD oil can potentially benefit your overall wellness. Finally, we will give you additional tips on how to sleep better, so you can regularly get all the rest your body needs. 

CBD Oil: What Is It?

CBD, or cannabidiol, is one of many cannabinoids found in cannabis plants. Another popular cannabinoid is THC (tetrahydrocannabinol). THC has an intoxicating effect on the body, while CBD does not. 

CBD oil is extracted from hemp, a member of the cannabis family (truly only differentiated by legal definition), because of its low THC concentrations (all hemp grown and all CBD oil products must have less than 0.3% THC). In addition to CBD, when using full or broad spectrum extracts, other cannabinoids, terpenes, and beneficial plant material are extracted, and they work together with the CBD to maximize their benefits for the body. This process is called the entourage effect and is typically used to refer to full spectrum CBD Oil products which contain some THC but less than 0.30%. 

Later on in the article we will detail all of the benefits of CBD oil, but first let’s focus on the sleep-related benefits. 

Can CBD Oil Help You Sleep Better? 

To answer this question, we first have to look at why CBD oil would be suspected to be able to help you sleep in the first place. As mentioned above, CBD is a type of phytocannabinoid, meaning it is a compound that naturally occurs in certain plants. The human body also has endocannabinoids, which it produces naturally. 

The endocannabinoids within your body interact with your endocannabinoid system, which is present throughout the body and influences the body in a variety of ways, including sleep. When you consume CBD oil, it interacts with the endocannabinoid system to provide whole-body wellness benefits.

For one, CBD oil helps to relax your body and mind which happens to be one of the major barriers to a good night’s sleep so relaxing a restless or agitated mind, is a benefit that cannot be understated. When your mind is calm, you can concentrate on falling asleep, and you are less likely to wake up in the middle of the night. 

How Else Can CBD Oil Benefit Your Body?

Beyond sleep, CBD oil has many wellness benefits. This is because CBD interacts with the endocannabinoid system, and this system influences more than just sleep. CBD works to:

• Support overall mental health.
• Potentially help with recovery from everyday exercise.
• Relax your mind and body.
• Promote balanced health.

As we speak, more and more studies on CBD oil are being conducted, and as their results come in, we will be able to learn even more about how CBD oil can support your overall health. And hopefully, one day, companies, including ourselves, will be able to cite research and better educate our consumers without getting in trouble with the FDA.

Additional Tips on Sleeping Better 

CBD oil will be most effective in helping you sleep when paired with habits that are also beneficial to your sleep. Some examples of these are listed below:

• Help your body distinguish between night and day. In general, there is light during the day and darkness during the night. Exposing your body to light during the day is a bit more straightforward (although if you work indoors you should make an effort to get outside at least once a day or work in an environment with lights), but keeping your body away from excess light at night will help maintain your circadian rhythm and allow for the release of the hormone melatonin, which facilitates sleep. This includes TV, your phone, any light bulbs around the house, computers, etc. (more below). 
  
  
• Stay away from your electronic devices before bed. This is related to the last tip, since the light that electronic devices like phones and televisions emit confuses your body and inhibits the release of melatonin. Try turning off your devices at least an hour before you intend on falling asleep, and instead read a book or write in a journal. If this cannot be avoided one thing you may want to explore is buying a phone, computer monitor, etc. that have a setting that allows you to shut off the blue light component of the screens after a certain time.
  
  
• Maintain a consistent sleep schedule. By this, we mean try falling asleep and waking up at about the same time every day. When your body has a general idea of when it has to go to sleep and wake up each day, it will be more prepared on a daily basis to do so naturally. The more erratic your sleep patterns are, the more issues you will have with falling and staying asleep. 
  
  
• Limit stress. Stress is a massive barrier to sleep, and having something weighing on your mind is often enough to disrupt your sleep entirely. As such, it is important to take steps to be relaxed as much as possible, especially right before bed. We have already discussed how CBD oil is one way to do so, but you could also try taking a warm bath, meditating, or journaling. Basically, practice whatever helps to calm your mind every day before bed!
  
  
• Exercise. In addition to being an excellent way to relieve stress and maintain your physical health, exercising during the day can help improve the quality of your sleep. Save any high-intensity exercise for the daytime and low-intensity exercise (yoga and/or stretching) before bed. 
  
  
• Eat better, especially right before bed. Eating a heavy/sugary meal right before bed might hurt your ability to fall asleep and trigger indigestion. Similarly, alcohol, caffeine, and nicotine can all disrupt your sleep patterns and drinking too much of anything before bed increases the chances of you waking up during the middle of the night to go to the bathroom. If you must eat right before bed, stick to light, nutritious snacks, such as a banana. If you do wake up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom try to minimize the use of any light such as using your hands to feel your way through the darkness if you’re adventurous or just grabbing your phone and using it as a flashlight instead of turning on lights, etc.
  
  
• Sleep in an environment that best enables quality sleep. If you are sleeping on an old, uncomfortable mattress in a hot room, chances are you are going to have difficulty falling asleep — it’s only natural! Keeping the temperature in your room at a moderate and cool temperature will best benefit your sleep, as will sheets and mattresses that stay “cool” rather than layers that will make you overheat. Though we know this is one of the most infamous debates for couples, whoever goes for the cooler temperature is right! Finally, eliminating all light and non-relaxing noise (you can stay, wave sounds!) from the room will help you concentrate on falling asleep. All that said, this may vary person to person but this is what works for most people.

With these tips, plus the help of CBD oil, you can finally start sleeping better and wake up feeling well-rested. 

In Conclusion

CBD or cannabidiol is a cannabinoid that interacts with the human body’s endocannabinoid system. The endocannabinoid system affects a number of processes within the body that may influence the quality of your sleep. 

CBD may be able to benefit your sleep in a couple of ways. First, CBD helps tackle barriers to sleep by relaxing your body and mind. Additionally, early studies on the way CBD directly benefits sleep are promising. However, more research is needed on the relationship between CBD and sleep to fully understand CBD oil’s usefulness. We recommend you do some of your own research since we are limited in what we can say by the FDA and see if CBD Oil is something that might be for you.

Whether you decide to use CBD oil or not, there are other steps you can take to improve your sleep. These include turning off any electronics at least an hour before bed, getting exercise during the day, avoiding caffeine and alcohol before bed, and minimizing stress. When taking CBD oil (or even if you’re not!) in conjunction with these lifestyle habits, you can get the best results and significantly improve the quality of your sleep! 

Sources

CBD and sleep: Does CBD work as a sleep aid? (medicalnewstoday.com)

CBD: For Sleep and Insomnia | American Sleep Association

Cannabidiol (CBD) — what we know and what we don’t - Harvard Health Blog - Harvard Health Publishing

How to Sleep Better - HelpGuide.org